Cleaning saddles

[MistyMorning]

Any tips or advice for cleaning a saddle? Have a leather western one with some tooling that I have been borrowing and would like to clean it up good before I return it.

 

[milkmaid]

Murphy's Oil Soap on a very slightly damp sponge, lot of elbow grease, followed by Lexol conditioner.

 

[MistyMorning]

Murphy's Oil Soap on a very slightly damp sponge, lot of elbow grease, followed by Lexol conditioner.

Thanks milkmaid, a couple more questions, use the Murphy's full strength? Should I rinse it off with clear water then?

 

[milkmaid]

Nope, full strength and leave it on. Your sponge needs to be slightly damp so you get a tiny bit of foam when you apply lots of elbow grease, but no wetter than that. Clean it until you have all the dirt off (and not just superficial dirt) and then use Lexol liberally until the leather no longer "drinks" it in instantly. It does an amazing job of cleaning. Keep in mind to do it right it'll take a lot of time -- when I showed English I'd spend at least 3 hours on my tack but it was well worth it afterwards.

 

[V_Key]

We use Castile Soap, water and wash wash and let it dry well ... Then Bentleys Glycerin or Lexol liberally ... then use a clean stiff brush to clean out the tooling...
Also use these Links:
http://horses.about.com/od/choosingandusingtack/ss/cleansaddle.htm
Google:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=clean+saddle&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

 

[MistyMorning]

Thanks so much you guys for the tips, thought I had a winner on e-bay for the saddle I wanted, but got outbid at the last minute(stupid dial-up :roll: ) Since I have the Murphy's on hand anyway will go that route, but will hold off on the good cleaning until I am finished using the borrowed one.